No-parking proposals
don’t impress Larbert residents

After a year of upset for residents, parking ban proposals for streets around the new Forth Valley Royal Hospital have been unveiled.

However, homeowners say they do not go far enough and will not ease the parking nightmare they live with.

Falkirk Council has issued a roads order, which would stop cars parking on various parts of Stirling Road, Logie Drive, Pretoria Road, Robert Bruce Court and Ladywell Drive in Larbert.

Old Denny Road will have parking restrictions added to ensure the fire service can get access.

Logie Drive resident Daniel Green thinks the new restrictions, which include ‘no waiting at any time’ and others that only come into effect at peak times, won’t solve anything.

He said: “By the NHS’s own admission in their parking survey, over 100 cars are parking on the residential streets surrounding the hospital every day.

“Overnight there are 36 cars, which belong to residents, and every morning over 100 more are added.

“When the proposal for the hospital was first brought to residents, the NHS guaranteed us that parking would not spill on to our streets. But it clearly has.

“We are having to deal with the overspill and it’s turned what at one time was a quiet, almost rural street, into a busy car park.

“Putting yellow lines at the entrance to the street and along the A road isn’t going to stop people parking - it’s just going to push the traffic further into the residential area.”

The traffic order is the result of a parking survey carried out by NHS Forth Valley last year which found 83.7 per cent of hospital staff used a car to get to work with five per cent opting to walk, cycle or use the train for the commute. Bus users made up ten per cent of the total staff. The car parks were not built to support these numbers and as a result staff have to park on nearby streets.

William Corner from Old Denny Road said around 40 cars are parking on that street each weekday, often blocking residents cars.

He added: “From the travel survey, it is clear that the NHS travel plan isn’t working and it is the locals that are having to deal with the plan not working.

“This road order is not going to help the residents of this street in the slightest. We are sympathetic to the staff who cannot get parked in the car parks, but this has greatly impacted on the people in the street, making things miserable for us. The only realistic solution is to increase capacity at the car park - something we are all hoping they opt to do.”

A spokesperson from Falkirk Council said the proposals are intended to restrict parking, improve access and maintain traffic flow on the A9 Stirling Road

He added: “This may mean that some vehicles will park in the adjacent side streets. To address this, these proposals are also designed to maintain access for refuse and delivery vehicles.”

Falkirk Council is accepting responses to its proposals until Thursday, August 16.

Full details of the plan can be found at the Larbert, Torwood and Community Council Facebook page.

The community council is in talks with residents and is also accepting further comments for consideration.